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>Early onset absent-minded professorism

>I am currently spending a beautiful Saturday afternoon washing all my towels and bathmats — before I get to go out for a run in our unseasonably warm-ish weather — because of the very sleep-addled thing I did yesterday morning.

I was getting up extra early to drive out to the suburbs across the river to meet with the junior high teacher with whom I am working on her plans to teach The Hobbit. (Can I just say, btw, how dorkily excited I am about the two guest-lectures I’ll be doing — one on runes and one on Old English riddles. Though I think it’s hilarious that I’ll be teaching 8th graders how to write in code in the runes lesson! Not sure that’s such a good idea!) Anyway, because it was early for me — or because I am already becoming a stereotype of absent-mindedness — I did something really dumb. I turned on the sink faucet to do some hand-washing — plug engaged, of course — then turned on the shower, and then forgot all about the sink running. Twenty minutes later I stepped out of the shower to a flooded bathroom floor. Every towel I owned went into soaking up the mess. Thank god, at least, it didn’t fill up around the toilet and stream into the floorboards or the apartment downstairs.

Sheesh. I’m starting to think what “they” say about intellectuals having no common sense might be true in my case. I blame the last month and half of professional and personal stress, plus my lack of sleep lately.